Fantasy Football: Start or sit for Falcons vs Saints

Fantasy Football: Start or sit for Falcons vs Saints

Congratulations! If you clicked, odds are you made the promised land that is the fantasy football playoffs.

For those of you who weren’t smart or handsome enough to earn a first-round bye, here’s a look at who we would be starting and sitting between the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints for tonight’s game.

QB: Start Matt Ryan, sit Drew Brees

Hopefully you have a better fantasy QB than Ryan to lead your team into the playoffs, but you can certainly do worse this week. Ryan has an excellent track record in Thursday night games and smoked the Saints for six touchdowns, 571 yards and no interceptions in two meetings last season. Admittedly, New Orleans’ defense is much tougher now. Still, we’re betting Ryan comes through with a big performance when his team needs it.

If you haven’t seen the Saints this year you might assume their 9-3 record is all about Brees carrying the team on his shoulders like in years past. That’s not the case in 2017. These Saints beat you by running the ball down your throat and playing stifling defense. Of course, Brees can still put up numbers but he’s simply not throwing at the same volume he used too. He’s only thrown three touchdowns in one game this year and is on pace to throw fewer passes (and MUCH fewer touchdowns) than any season since he joined New Orleans. Bench Brees and look for QB points elsewhere.

RB: Start Devonta Freeman and Alvin Kamara

Last season Freeman had his way with the Saints defense, producing a total of 384 yards and two touchdowns from scrimmage. Again, their D is much-improved, but Freeman just had a strong game against Minnesota’s No. 1 ranked fantasy run defense, averaging 6.2 yards per carry. Freeman looks unstoppable right now and should be in your lineup if he’s on your team.

On the other side, Kamara is an absolute monster of a fantasy beast. He’s already posted over 1,200 yards from scrimmage and has scored 11 touchdowns. He runs, he catches, he makes people miss. He does it all. Kamara is a must-start in every league no matter what defense he’s facing.

Mark Ingram and Tevin Coleman are also worth considering in deeper leagues.

WR: Start Julio Jones and Michael Thomas

Tonight we’ll finally get to see how the Saints’ answer to Julio Jones will fare. Their first-round pick Marshon Lattimore has had a brilliant rookie season and is playing pass coverage at a level far beyond his years. Don’t expect Jones to dominate him, but in a critical game like this he should see enough targets to be worth a start.

Michael Thomas absolutely roasted Atlanta last year. He posted 156 yards and a touchdown in the season finale, following up on a 71-yard, one-touchdown performance in September. The Falcons will have both Desmond Trufant and Brian Poole back in the lineup, but Thomas is a tough cover for anybody. He’s an easy start.

TE: Sit Austin Hooper and Josh Hill

Ah, the fantasy breakout year that never was. Hooper has shown flashes in 2017 – notably Week 1 against the Bears, Week 8 against the Jets and Week 10 against the Cowboys, but Hooper has never really put it together consistently and Steve Sarkisian has not used him as much as we had anticipated. He’s a TE2 option in 12-team leagues at best. Sit Hooper and hit up the waiver wire for a real tight end.

With Coby Fleener out for the year with a concussion, Josh Hill has stepped into his place as New Orleans’ starting tight end. The only thing you need to know about Hill is that he should not be anywhere near your lineup.

D/ST: Sit Falcons and Saints

As you can tell, we’re expecting a high-scoring kind of game. Turnovers could make either defense an intriguing play but you can’t rely on that. Atlanta and New Orleans are both no-goes for this week.